


Love is in the little things

by magicbeanstalk



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Angst, F/F, F/M, Human AU, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Past Kara Danvers/Mon-El, Protective Lena Luthor, Recovery, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicbeanstalk/pseuds/magicbeanstalk
Summary: Kara loves Mike.She does.But is love meant to hurt this much?
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 14
Kudos: 61





	Love is in the little things

**Author's Note:**

> I personally have nothing against Mon-El, I just needed a villain for the story.
> 
> TW: strongly implied child abuse/rape, abusive relationship, minor injuries, short reference to blood

_Looking back, it started with the little things._

__

It always did, didn’t it?

__

They hit you just one time.

__

_And then he hits you again._

\------------------

_Child Kara doesn’t know a lot about love._

_Her parents probably loved her, at least before they died, and she thinks she loved them back._

_She’s not so sure she loves the foster parents she’s with right now though._

_They're the kind that come into her tiny room at night, gripping her thighs so hard their big hands leave bruises._  
\------------------

But adult Kara knows she loves Mike. 

She does.

And Mike loves Kara back. He tells her that, when he’s beating her with his angry fists and pointy feet, pushing her into walls and yanking her hair.

He says he loves her, and Kara believes him. Believes she deserves this. 

Because she does, doesn’t she? 

Mike is helping her. He punishes her when she does something wrong, and when she does something right he looks so… pleased.

Kara loves that pleased look.

Or at least, she thinks she does.

Because this is what love is, right?

\------------------

Sometimes she goes into work with a bruised face and a limp in her step.

She always gets those weird looks, but Cat’s gone and Mike doesn’t like her hanging around James and Winn.

It’s okay though. 

Because work is a place without Mike.

And it’s okay to need a break sometimes right?

Even when she loves him and he loves her.

And anyway, she needs the money. Mike doesn’t work, so she has to.

Or that was her excuse at least.

She thinks.

She doesn’t really know much anymore.

\------------------

Lena breaks through the haze of her life.

Snapper sends her to do an interview. He doesn’t really do that nowadays, and Kara isn’t really sure why, but that’s okay too. 

Other people stare too much, and Mike gets angry when questions start being asked.

Kara hadn’t wanted to go, that first time.

But when she met the tech billionaire, Lena had smiled at her. 

Not many people smile at her anymore. Or if they do, it’s more of a grimace when they see her bruises.

And it slips its way through the haze, that smile - kind and concerned, and genuine.

She clings onto it when Mike punishes her that night for accidentally breaking a glass. 

\------------------

After that first interview, Lena keeps requesting more, specifically with Kara.

Every time, she asks how Kara has been.

One time, she asks if Kara would like to have lunch together one day.

And Kara should say no, because Mike will be angry when he finds out (and he always, always finds out), but Lena asks so sadly, says she’s new in town and has no friends.

And Kara - stupid, stupid Kara, she tells herself - agrees to meet next Monday at Noonans.

\------------------

It’s Monday, and Kara is waiting at Noonans.

She’s early. Lena isn’t here yet.

She wonders slowly if she should leave. Maybe stop Mike from being so angry.

And she’s just about to get up and go when Lena is sliding into the chair opposite her, apologies and greetings slipping through her lips as she sets down her bag and takes off her work coat.

She asks how Kara is, and looks at her with those big green eyes of hers, and Kara almost wants to tell her the truth.

That the world is blurry around her, and she loves Mike and Mike loves her, but she’s beginning to think that love shouldn’t hurt this much, shouldn’t leave her bruised and broken and scared, scars and cuts from both Mike and her many foster homes littering the limbs she is always so careful to cover.

But she doesn’t, and like with so many things, she doesn’t know why.

So she says she’s okay, even though she thinks the world might be crumbling around her.

\------------------

Kara manages one more lunch with Lena before Mike finds out.

And oh, is the punishment brutal.

She can barely walk when it's finally over, and the back of her legs bleed from the belt Mike used to hit her. Her eyes are black and bruised, and she thinks one of her arms might be broken.

When she hobbles slowly to her desk the next day, right arm held gingerly across her painful torso, Lena is standing by her chair.

She looks up with a smile, but it quickly turns into a gasp of… maybe shock? Horror?

She rushes forwards, hands reaching out to Kara, but stops instantly when she flinches back.

Lena asks what happened, and if she’s been to the doctor yet.

Kara mumbles an incomplete reply before carefully lowering herself into her desk chair and putting her bag on the ground.

Lena eventually leaves when Kara just keeps telling her that she needs to work.

She pretends like she doesn’t feel a pang of… something, she’s not really sure what, when Lena glances back one last time with an oddly determined expression on her face before stepping into the lift.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! constructive criticism is appreciated :)


End file.
